Blog post 4: Jennifer Bechard

 In this blog post, I’ll be discussing the first articulation concerning message, technological means, and agents with respect to two distinct media ecologies which, despite a few hundred years’ separation, are structurally quite similar given the way the concept of ‘virality’ plays into them. The first media ecology I’ll be dealing with is that which Martin Luther took advantage of to spread his 95 theses to spark the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, and the second ecology is the one which gave rise to the “OH LAWD HE COMIN” internet cat meme of 2018-2019.  

 

The diffusion of Gutenberg’s printing press around the 1440s (Standage, 50) enabled the large-scale reproduction of texts, a practice which was previously slow, exclusive, and expensive as it was only done by hand within monasteries or universities. Most notable among the kinds of texts produced were pamphlets, a medium which, given its lightweight and portable constitution, could be spread far and wide across the disparate townships which would later become the nation of Germany. Here, the mode of production (printing) and the physical medium carrying the message (pamphlets) resulted in a shift in both the kinds of messages produced, who could produce them, and how they were circulated. Firstly, given that messages were now able to travel far and wide in great numbers, Luther decided to begin publishing his pamphlets in common German instead of academic Latin which was inaccessible to most people (Standage, 53); in this case, the physicality of the medium directly spurred a change in contents. Secondly, given that printing pamphlets was not nearly as time-consuming and arduous task as writing out books by hand, many more people could participate in the creation of media contents. This change in form and contents also incited a change in consumptions practices. Given the common German the pamphlets were written in, and the large number that could be printed and spread to different hands, they could be read out to crowds (like town squares or workplaces) in many villages all over the land so that even illiterate commonfolk could participate in the discourse. As such, the fecundity of the printing press created the conditions for virality given its affording of portable, numerous messages, which in turn created a change in who could participate in the production and consumption of these messages. 
 
E.J. White, in A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet, highlights a different, perhaps more problematic, dimension of a participatory, viral media ecology. In her discussion of the “OH LAWD HE COMIN” fat cat meme, she explains that the technological means of communication afforded by the internet creates a sense of openness which may allow users to appropriate the meanings of a community they are not part of without understanding the history nor particular moral codes of the community: “democratic openness of participatory platforms to admit new contributions from any quarter, or to allow different quarters to borrow content from each other” which, as White explains, “can set off turf wars” (White, 70). In this case, we see that the affordances of modern internet communication, particularly qua meme creation and circulation, allow users to draw upon symbols which are not their own to infuse into their contents. As users who are part of the communities who generated these symbols notice this, backlash may result (as it did in the case of the Luanne satire (White, 65) or the Monterey Bay Aquarium situation (White, 69)). In White’s analysis, we can see that the transgressing of community borders which happens in online meme creation and participatory culture can lead to conflict and even compromise the identities of those who are part of groups whose meanings are appropriated. 
 
In sum, technological means which enable widespread and participatory forms of communication (such as the printing press and pamphlet as well as the internet and memes) allow for greater participation in content creation and the merging of different worldviews over distance. However, as White elucidates, this change in production, distribution, and consumption does not always lead to a more ideal media ecology, as the increased appropriation of messages can often result in inter-group conflict.